Last week I attended a major
three-day conference of hundreds of Jewish funders, where I participated
in a panel discussion on how philanthropic foundations such as ours
have succeeded in addressing various stigmatized social needs — issues
that other funders seem to avoid. I spoke about our pioneering work in
the field of mental health, and two colleagues representing other
foundations described their groundbreaking work in helping people with
disabilities and people with addictions.

The
room in which our panel discussion took place was situated at the edge
of the hotel grounds, quite a distance from the nerve center of the
conference. I don’t doubt that the choice of location was purely
coincidental, but the symbolism was hard to miss. Unsavory topics tend
to hover on the fringes of Jewish philanthropy’s collective
consciousness — perhaps because donors are loath to acknowledge that
Jews succumb to the same sordid impulses as do the rest of humanity; or
maybe these issues simply depress them.

In the course of my presentation on our work
in mental health, I elaborated on our recent activities addressing child
sexual abuse within the Jewish community. Statistics point to incidence
rates of 1 in 3 among girls and 1 in 7 among boys.

Just over a year ago, our foundation together with two others launched an organization called ASAP.

Since that time, hundreds of child sexual abuse survivors in the US
have come forward to request our help in accessing therapy, and
thousands are being assisted by local NGOs. Similarly, programs that we
support in Israel are experiencing an exponential increase in demand for
their services. And yet, institutions where children congregate, such
as schools, summer camps, synagogues and youth groups, lack effective
policies to prevent incidents of child sexual abuse.

During that panel discussion’s question and
answer session, while we fielded numerous questions from those in
attendance, there was not one question about child sexual abuse. Despite
all the publicity this issue has received, such as the movie Spotlight, the Penn State scandal and the current allegations against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the subject remains taboo.

Our efforts to promote awareness have made
inroads with a handful of prestigious educational networks, whose
administrations now realize that implementing effective child-safety
policies — and soon — is vitally important and is in fact in their own
best interests as well. We hope to support these efforts, monetarily,
professionally and operationally, and to extend them to other
institutions.

Yet our coalition of Jewish funders for this
cause remains small. Interestingly, all of us are haredi. As an active
member of this coalition, I have reached out to highly educated,
progressive, deeply caring donors from across the Jewish spectrum to
partner with us to combat this scourge, but with scant success. This
puzzles me, for child sexual abuse is hardly a theoretical problem; the
children and grandchildren of these very donors are vulnerable. All of
our children are at risk.

How is it, then, that we blithely send our
children to institutions that lack effective safeguards against a widely
recognized danger that causes untold damage to such a huge percentage
of boys and girls everywhere? Why aren’t we speaking up, demanding that
our schools and camps and synagogues implement basic protocols for
preventing further incidents? Could anyone think that we can afford to
remain in denial?

It seems that it will take more time for the
Jewish philanthropic community to realize the extent of the problem. We
must be patient, as this happens every time our foundation identifies
and tackles an unaddressed need. It happened in 2007, when we began
helping haredim in Israel integrate into the workforce, and no one else
was interested. It happened again in 2009, when we began helping victims
of domestic violence start a new life – not a popular cause back then.
In each of these cases, eventually, the broader community caught up.

And the community will certainly catch up with our deep concern for child sexual abuse as well. The only question is, How many more of our children will need to suffer before that happens?

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Mazel Tov - Rabbi Hershel Schachter!

CLICK ABOVE PHOTO! Rabbi Moshe Feinstein states the very marriage of a gentile woman to a non observant Jew, is equivalent to an open declaration that she will not observe the precepts. This is so, because it is highly unlikely that the gentile member of such a union, will be more committed to Judaism than her remiss Jewish husband (certainly when they are living together prior to their marriage). Unlike mental or tacit negations, explains Rav Feinstein, open declarations do invalidate conversions. When such cases appear before a rabbinical court, its members actually become witnesses to an acceptance declaration that is not sincere. Therefore, it is no longer a tacit insincerity, but rather an obvious one. As such, they are forbidden to sanction the conversion. Regardless of what this Jewish court may declare, the conversion is invalid and the person is not deemed a member of the Jewish nation. In Iggros Moshe, Letters of Moshe (Yoreh De’ah, no. 157), he writes that “According to the Law, it is certain that one who converts for the sake of marriage, does not intend to keep the commandments, and is not a proselyte at all.”

The Tendler Disease in the News - Again!

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Child Molestor is Castrated in Plea Deal!

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Tendler Country - Ex - High School Principal Gets 8 Years For Molesting Students!

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Rabbi Matt Salomon Offers The Pope His Help!

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Oy! Does He Have A Headache!

CLICK ON YOSEL!

Child Abuse - Chipping Away At The Wall Of Silence!

CLICK ON BRIDGE - FOR SALE AT THE AGUDATH ISRAEL!

Rav Yosef Blau Shlita

***CLICK ON PHOTO!*** "Batei Din in our times are not effective in dealing with criminal behavior. Lacking the investigative arm of the police and having restrictive standards of testimony they can not establish guilt. When the culprit is charismatic, he can often get protégés who feel indebted to him to lie to the Beis Din. It takes years before those who have been abused as youngsters to openly face their abuser."

Kolko's Office Sign - Auctioned On eBay!

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Ehud asked me to pardon him!

Looks like George has been hangin' with Bill Clinton!

I look into your eyes --- and I see a rotten crook!

Did you hear the one about the rabbi & the priest? Rabbi Kolko penetrated the priest (oh father)...